Dr. Michael Spooner On Heart-Rhythm Disorders

April 11, 2023

Electrophysiology is an innovative and rapidly-developing field that provides the unique opportunity to potentially cure life-altering heart rhythm problems through a minimally-invasive approach.

In this video, electrophysiologist, Michael Spooner, MD, speaks about heart-rhythm disorders and community-based care at Mason City Clinic. “Electrophysiologists are the electricians, so to speak, of the heart and our job is to help patients with electrical and heart rhythm-based disorders,” explains Dr. Spooner.

One unique aspect of Mason City Clinic, as opposed to some of the larger medical centers, is the focus on community-based care. Our patients drive up to the door, walk into the clinic, and they can get all of the highest levels of cardiology care and be back with their families very quickly.

To learn more about our cardiology services, please call 641-494-5300 today or use our online form to schedule an appointment. Our cardiology patients come to us from Albert Lea, Algona, Belmond, Britt, Buffalo Center, Charles City, Clarion, Cresco, Emmetsburg, Forest City, Garner, Greene, Hampton, Iowa Falls, Lake Mills, Mason City, New Hampton, Northwood, Osage, Waverly and surrounding locations.

Transcript

Dr. Michael Spooner:

My medical career started off in kind of a non-traditional way: Actually, it started going to the Naval Academy. For a good part of my career, I served as a flight surgeon, which was to care for the pilots in the Navy and the Marine Corps. I got to really see what it feels like to be part of something bigger, to help really touch the lives of those people who are going forward into harm’s way.

My focus in cardiology is really focused in the area of heart rhythm disorders. Okay. We call that an electrophysiologist. We are the electricians, so to speak, of the heart. So, our job is to really help patients with these electrical and heart rhythm-based disorders.

I believe our job is to convey to our patients these complex subjects in ways they can completely understand. And we just talk to them in very conversational terms about their heart, about complex issues like atrial fibrillation, and we help them understand the decisions that they have about their own care and help them make those decisions.

But I think the other unique thing about Mason City as opposed to some of the larger medical centers is community-based care. So, we’re really allowing our patients to, in a sense, drive up to the door. They can walk into the clinic; they can get all of the highest levels of cardiology care and be back with their families very quickly.

The more exciting part of the field is what we do invasively. So, we do what we call catheter ablation, which is procedures where we make small burns inside of the heart to break up these heart rhythm issues so that people can be free of issues like atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia, issues that people face that affect their quality of life.

The third invasive issue that as electrophysiologists we deal with is implanting cardiac devices. This would be how a lot of our patients will have interacted with us putting in pacemakers to help keep their heart rate up or defibrillators, implantable devices that help keep them out of dangerous heart rhythms that they may be more prone to developing.

The procedures that we do are very exciting, especially when we see that we can change the course of a disease, we can help people be free of a lot of the issues that they’re facing so that they can be more active, have a higher quality of life.